The Austin Legion Post 91 18-and-under softball team lost for the first time

this season, and Sunday's opening round of bracket play in the 2002 Austin Fastpitch Tournament was the worst time it could have picked.

Emerging as the top-seeded team from the Red Pool in Saturday's round-robin pool play, Austin was knocked off in Sunday morning's first-round game against the Blue Pool's fourth-seeded Brandon Blitz. Austin's loss -- the only defeat in 10 games this season -- cost the team a shot at the tournament title.

"We were 5-1 in the tournament, we just lost the wrong game," said Austin co-coach Todd Waterbury. "We played good softball. We played a good tournament despite the place we finished."

Austin won back-to-back games Sunday afternoon against familiar opponents to take fifth out of eight in the 18-and-under bracket. After losing 1-0 to Brandon, the local Legion team toppled the Holmen Merchants, 4-1, and the Rochester Stars, 9-0, for the consolation championship.

Austin defeated Holmen during Saturday's pool-play rounds, and Post 91 swept a doubleheader in their season-opener at Rochester. Austin also took a 3-0 decision from the Stars in the first game Saturday.

"We couldn't find a way early in the day to get out of the gate," Waterbury said. "When things aren't going your way you have to find a way to work off the positives and make things work your way."

Austin (9-1) did so by bouncing back Sunday afternoon, collecting nine and 12 hits in respective games after being blanked by Brandon in the opener.

The Blitz were 0-3 during pool play, but by allowing only 10 runs Brandon tipped off Coach Waterbury of his team's first-round foe.

"They played some close games, we knew that was a good team," Waterbury said. "They ended up finishing second. We just didn't hit the ball when we had a couple opportunities."

Singles by Amy Kelly, Steph Sundberg and Meggan Rider accounted for Austin's only hits against Brandon. Austin had two or more runners on base with one out in three innings, but the key hit escaped Post 91. The Blitz scored the go-ahead run in the fourth, leaving Kelly with the pitching loss despite her nine strikeouts.

An undisclosed knee injury suffered by Legion leadoff hitter Kylene Erstad left Austin with only nine roster players. Starting first baseman Nicole Turvey sprained an ankle in Saturday's opener and did not play throughout the remainder of the tournament.

Erstad sat out Austin's final two games Sunday afternoon.

Brandon was defeated by Eau Claire 1-0 in Sunday's championship match. Hopkins downed Owatonna for third.

Bouncing back

Austin fired back with random offensive outbursts in the consolation semifinals, scoring in three innings of a 4-1 win over the Holmen Merchants.

Kelly's two-run single in the bottom of the third proved to be the game-winner as pitcher Abbey Bergstrom, an All-Stater from Blooming Prairie, limited Holmen to two hits and one unearned run.

Caitlin Jurgenson and Teresa White added RBIs for Austin.

The Legion comeback was complete with Sunday's fifth-place game, a 9-0 rout of the Rochester Stars. Bergstrom allowed two hits in two innings and Kelly surrendered none to close out the five-inning affair.

Austin pounded out 12 hits, spurred by a five-run first inning. Kelly drove in Betsy Hingeveld with a one-out double, and Bergstrom plated Keri Feller on a misplayed grounder. Steph Eslinger scored Kelly with a single, White drove in Bergstrom with a double, and Sundberg followed with an RBI-single.

Ten Austin hitters came to the plate in the inning.

Feller added an RBI-double in the second inning and finished as one of four Austin players with at least two hits.

Kelly and Bergstrom each went 3-4, while Feller and White were 2-4.

The local Legion team has a league game scheduled at home for Thursday before traveling to a tournament in New Ulm over the weekend.

Linescores:

Brandon

000 100 0 -- 1 5 3

Austin

000 000 0 -- 0 3 1

LP--Kelly.

Holmen

010 000 0 -- 1 2 3

Austin

002 110 x -- 4 9 3

WP--Bergstrom.

Austin

530 01 -- 9 12 0

Rochester 000 00 -- 0

2 3

WP--Bergstrom.